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Wings open NLL playoffs on Friday

The Wings are looking forward to the beginning of a "new" season, especially the way the recent one ended.

The Wings are looking forward to the beginning of a "new" season, especially the way the recent one ended.

On Friday at 7:30 p.m., the Wings travel to Rochester to face the Knighthawks in the first round of the National League playoffs. The Wings (7-9) lost their final five regular season games.

Rochester is also 7-9 but won the tiebreaker and home advantage by going 3-0 against the Wings this season. Eight of the nine NLL teams qualified for the postseason in what will be a single-elimination format all three rounds.

The Wings, who are making their first postseason appearance since 2008, closed the regular season with a 9-7 loss at Rochester on April 28.

"Even though we have lost a few games down the stretch, really the only game we were out of was the Buffalo game," Wings coach Johnny Mouradian said on a conference call, referring to a 17-7 loss on April 7. "The new season started last Saturday around 9:30 p.m."

So the message was clear. Mouradian insists the Wings are only looking forward, and he said they match up well with Rochester despite the 0-3 mark against the Nighthawks this season.

"We've had two real close ones besides the first game of the season," he said.

That first game was a 22-12 home loss to Rochester. Besides the regular season finale, the other defeat to Rochester was 11-8 at home on March 3.

So the theme going into the postseason is improvement.

"Like any team we play, any time we play them we want to get better in certain areas," Mouradian said.

Two key players for the Wings will be veteran Dan Dawson and rookie Kevin Crowley.

Dawson set a single-season Wings scoring record with 103 points (25 goals, 78 assists). Crowley was second on the team in scoring with 71 points (36 goals, 25 assists).